Contents

History

After her older brother Sam's mutant powers manifested and he joined the New Mutants, Paige tried many things to discover whether she was also a mutant, but became frustrated after many failures. Venting her anger, Paige finally found that her power was to shed her skin. She kept her nature secret until the day Sam and his X-Force teammate Boom Boom visited the farm. They were abducted by the Fenris twins as part of the "Younghunt," a contest involving the capture of young mutants. X-Force teamed up with the New Warriors, whose member Firestar had also been captured, and together they opposed the organizer of the contest, the Gamesmaster. Paige secretly followed them and confronted the Gamesmaster, defeating him in a game of wits.

Soon after, Paige was kidnapped by the techno-organic alien Phalanx, who sought to learn how to assimilate mutants into their collective. Paige and her fellow abductees were rescued by an ad-hoc X-Men team, and subsequently became founding members of Generation X, a team of mutants enrolled at the new Massachusetts branch of Xavier's School. During her time there, Paige studied to become a better X-Man than Sam. She also romanced her teammate Chamber, although their relationship was strained and terminated more than once because of his self-sabotaging.

After the School was closed, Paige was recruited by her former headmaster Banshee into his paramilitary X-Corps. After that group was dismantled, Paige went to study at the re-established Xavier Institute. Her interest in environmental issues led to her discovering corruption within Worthington Enterprises, the company owned by the X-Man Archangel. Investigating, she and Archangel encountered the Dominant Species, and she was almost killed. Archangel saved her with his healing ability, after which they became romantically involved.

Having finally graduated to the ranks of the X-Men, Paige later aided Archangel in establishing the global mutant outreach program Mutantes Sans Frontières. Setting up office in Zanzibar, they became involved in an attempt by the Hellfire Club to destabilize the country by employing the mercenary Weaponeers. Alongside the country's President, who was secretly the superhero Askari, as well as reinforcements from Genosha, the heroes managed to repel the invaders.

Her younger brother Josh later joined the new New Mutants team under the codename Icarus. Her sister Melody also joined the school as Aero after discovering she could fly, but was depowered on M-Day, although Paige herself retained her powers.

Husk later clashed with the O*N*E* after they attempted to confiscate her personal items, hacking into their computers in retaliation. Following the murder and subsequent funeral of her brother Jay, Husk returned home to Kentucky before re-joining the X-Men in San Francisco to help repel the Skrulls invasion. She has most recently been seen in Utopia, fighting against Norman Osborne's Dark Avengers

Necrosha

During the Necrosha event, Husk was part of the team that was sent to Muir Island to investigate[2]. Paige fought[3] but she too was possessed by the villain Proteus, who gained the ability to possess more than just one host. While possessing her, he demonstrate husking into a flaming form. Eventually Paige was freed from Proteus, and he was defeated by Magneto[4].

Second Coming

Later, she was seen in the San Fransisco Subway, fighting Nimrods alongside Avalanche, Sunspot and Boom-Boom.The team seemed to be struggling with the Nimrod, Paige tried Husking into a corrosive form to try and corrode the Nimrod, but the robot used his technology to get used to this form and literally ripped it from her body. It took the combined efforts of the whole team to defeat the robot. But just as it's destroyed, two more arrive and the team is forced to fight. Later it seems the team defeated the Nimrods in the tunnels as Paige joins the fight on the Golden Gate Bridge. Where she witnesses the defeat of the Nimrods, wondering what's caused them to malfunction.

Curse of the Mutants

After Paige's old teammate Jubilee is turned into a vampire, Paige makes it her mission to find her. Not telling the other X-Men about what she's doing, Paige targets a group of vampires. Pretending to be a helpless girl, she lets a vampire take her to an abandoned warehouse where he tries to bite her. However, under her skin, she assumes a metal form. Throwing him off her she demands to know where Jubilee is. The lights are turned on and a group of vampires is revealed to be in the room. After they don't give her information, Paige assumes a wooden, spiked form. She starts taking down the vampires, staking them with her arms and legs. One of the vamps tries lighting her on fire, however this doesn't affect Paige and she uses the fire to her advantage to help defeat the vamps. The remaining vampire, the one who tried biting her, gets and axe and tries swinging for her, landing a blow to her side where the Axe sticks. Paige fights through the pain and manages to stake the last vampire. She is left fearful of what's become of her friend. It is unknown whether she told anyone about what happened.

After this, Paige returns to Utopia where she joins the strike force. The members of the team all have powers that would make it impossible for them to be bitten and turned into vampires. They act as the front line against the Vampire Wolverine and the invading vampire forces. Paige yet again takes her spiked, wooden form and takes down several vamps before she's taken out by Wolverine.

Husk is later seen amongst many other X-Men, that are waiting in an office waiting to take down Magik, who was having a meeting with Cyclops, incase Magik put up a fight to Scott's suggestion of her needing to be kept under arrest for her actions from the "Fall of the New Mutants" saga.

Regenesis

Paige was amongst the mutants who chose to side with Wolverine in the aftermath of his climatic battle with Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men. She seemed content to turn her back on the life of a soldier that she had been living. It was during a conversation with Sam that she seemed to decide and when she left, he revealed to Dani Moonstar that Paige's powers hadn't been working correctly and that she has been molting everywhere.

Paige joined the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning as a Junior staff member, teaching History of Mutant Art and Mutant Literature. Sporting a new costume, whilst teaching her first class, Paige 'husked' into a more aggressive form, shouting at her students in order to make them start paying attention to her. However, during the class, the school is attacked by the Hellfire Club.'s monsters, Paige defends her class, husking into her fire form to eliminate the threats. She also joins the rest of the Institute in standing against the Hellfire Club. She later holds a class outside, A.K.A. Krakoa for the shade he provides.

At a faculty meeting, Paige tries to express her insecurity about not being cut out to to teach and that the kids aren't listening to her but is ironically cut off by Beast before she can finish. Later, Cannonball expresses his frustration about there only being a memorial for dead X-Men, including their brother Jay, in the faculty lounge and that doesn't understand how Paige agrees with the decision and that she can't even look at Jay's picture. Casting off Sam's feelings, Paige announces she has class and needs to change, in reply to this, Sam states that she sheds her skin every time she's unhappy and that her power isn't an antidepressant.

At that moment, the school is attacked and Paige is instructed to go teach as normal. During her class, Rogue interupts and informs Paige that there is a problem with the 'heating system'. Upon leaving the class, Paige instantly husks into her fire form and destroys the invading N'Garai in the mansion. During Paige's time at the school it becomes apparent that her mysterious molting condition is only worsening, her skin being in a constantly cracked and flaking state.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Transitional Omni-morph Husking: a Transitional omni-morph. She has the mutant ability to shed her outer layer of skin and reveal a new layer or shape underneath. While she can sometimes acquire new forms, Husk has been able to shift into anything that does not exceed her body mass. Any extra mass left when she shifts into a smaller form such as an insect or a bird is shunted into an unknown extra-dimensional space, and will return to Husk when she resumes her human form, Paige most commonly takes on a Paige-like form in a new material, and much prefers to do that. She can become any solid that she has studied and can imitate adamantium, diamond, granite, wood, rubber, brick, even glass. She has the capability to blend in with surroundings, but in order to do so, she would have to study the texture she seeks to mimic first. She was able to shift into liquid substances, including complex acids capable of affecting organic steel. Husk also had the ability to change only part of her body (such as changing a hand into a bladed weapon). When Paige morphs into a different layer, she often takes on new physical abilities or qualities, such as increased weight, strength, or invulnerability. She can husk away minor injuries, but deeper ones will stay with her. She can hold a form for about an hour before she needs to revert back to her original form. She can morph repeatedly, is not required to stay in any one form, but too many transformations can become very painful. In great stress or trauma, Paige can shed without control, revealing patchwork forms. When Paige ‘husks’, she often sheds her clothing as well. This has the unintended side effect of leaving her nude when she returns to her normal form.

When the mutant Proteus psychically possessed Husk, he was able to use her body to husk into a fire form and shoot flames from Husk's hands.